Friday, November 16, 2007

Obama Didn't Break "Anthem" Law

I haven't posted in awhile (job and WoW taking up time), but I just had to get my two cents in about this "Barack Obama broke the law when he didn't put his hand over his heart during the National Anthem" stupidity that's apparently going around.

MSN.com had a front page link to an article by "Explainer" Torie Bosch in Slate. The headline is "How Barack Obama Broke the Law," an outrageous, inflamatory, unfair title for a sloppy conclusion about the legislated respect one must show for the flag and the anthem.

Some conservative bloggers are furious about a photo showing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama without his hand on his heart during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Obama has countered that the photo was taken during the national anthem, not the Pledge of Allegiance—so he didn't have to. Is that true?

No.

Clear enough. Bosch says American citizens have to put their hands over their hearts during the National Anthem, and links to the law that says so.

Here's the text of the law provided in the link, emphasis added:

(1) when the flag is displayed—(A) all present except those in uniform should stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart;(B) men not in uniform should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold the headdress at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart; and(C) individuals in uniform should give the military salute at the first note of the anthem and maintain that position until the last note; and(2) when the flag is not displayed, all present should face toward the music and act in the same manner they would if the flag were displayed.

Dumbasses across the country, be informed: "should" means "doesn't have to." In law, mandatory language is "shall." So when Barack Obama said he didn't have to put his hand over his heart, he was right and Torie Bosch and conservative bloggers are ignorant assholes.

For frick's sake, it's going to be Al Gore and John Kerry all over again.

How disgusting. A Bosche on the sole of my boot. I shall have to find a patch of grass to wipe it on. Probably get shunned in the Officers' Mess. "Sorry about the pong you fellows, trod in a Bosche and can't get rid of the whiff."

Friday, August 10, 2007

That Was One Hell of a Code Red

Lieutenant General Philip Kensinger evaded the service of a subpoena to appear before Congress and tell what he knows of the death of Pat Tillman. And he's still in hiding. Which means he has some big ass secret he's keeping.

It's not a simple friendly fire and misguided coverup type of secret. And it's not a fragging and a misguided coverup type of secret. It's got to be a murder and deliberate coverup kind of secret.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

I Had a Dream

Two nights ago I had a dream in which I was arguing with my mother -- again! -- that "the media," insofar as it is a single entity, is not liberal.

I wasn't even paying attention to the news except to notice the deaths of several people all at once (Ingmar Bergman, Tom Snyder and the coach of my mom's favorite football team, the 49ers of the '80s, Bill Walsh) and the seizure of Chief Justice Roberts. I am, after all, a Level 15 Night Elf Huntress who has to feed her bear on a regular basis (neep!).

But today's Glenn Greenwald is about how two Bush and Iraq War Supporters who supported the Surge, Ken Pollack and Michael O'Hanlon, announced that they were actually war opponents who have been forced by the brilliant strategy of the Surge to admit that it's really working after all.

I spent yesterday and today reading through virtually all of the writings and interviews of these two Brookings geniuses over the past four years concerning Iraq. There is no coherence or consistency to anything they say. It shifts constantly. They say whatever they need to say at the moment to justify the war for which they bear responsibility. It is exactly like reading through the writings of Bill Kristol, Tom Friedman and every other individual who flamboyantly supported this disaster and -- motivated solely by salvaging their own reputations -- are desperate to find some method to argue that they were right.

Even though I write frequently about how broken and corrupt our establishment media is, witnessing these two war lovers -- supporters of the invasion, advocates of the Surge, comrades of Fred Kagan -- mindlessly depicted all day yesterday by media mouthpieces as the opposite of what they are was really quite startling. After all, there is a record as long as it is clear demonstrating what they really are.

And lest we get distracted by this propaganda nonsense into thinking that the Surge is actually working because "these Howard-Dean-like War Opponents say it," the Surge is, in point of fact, not working at all (Matthew Yglesias).

[Michael O'Hanlon] totally backed down. Said the progress has only been against aqi [Al Qaeda in Iraq - Ed.], that sectarian violence and the civil war is as bad as ever, and that the current strategy will probably fail. He thinks we should partition the country. Why the turnabout from the optimistic op-ed? He didn't say.

Monday, July 23, 2007

I Have Contempt for Your Contempt of My Contempt

Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten will likely be charged with contempt by Congress on Wednesday, reports The Raw Story (via Fark).

Tony Snow poo-pooed the contempt charges.

He repeated the White House's offer for off-the-record interviews for officials like Miers on the US Attorneys firings, and suggested that the Justice Department was unlikely to proceed with contempt charges, "if precedent is any guide."

Take your thoroughly corrupted DOJ and stick it somewhere unsavory.

Congress doesn't need the DOJ to arrest, try and imprison Miers and Bolten because of Inherent Contempt.

Under this process, the procedure for holding a person in contempt involves only the chamber concerned. Following a contempt citation, the person cited for contempt is arrested by the Sergeant-at-Arms for the House or Senate, brought to the floor of the chamber, held to answer charges by the presiding officer, and then subject to punishment that the House may dictate (usually imprisonment for punishment reasons, imprisonment for coercive effect, or release from the contempt citation.)

Mwaha, mwahaha, mwahahaha!

For a little bonus, here's Keith Olbermann and Jonathan Turley on the subject (Crooks & Liars).